Jack pointed his truck in the direction of Iowa City. He did a google search of Lily’s name on his phone and it pulled up her address and directions. 

Smartphone or no smartphone, he was going to get to Maggie one way or another. He had the whole story now, and on the seat next to him was an envelope with the test results. Of course he wasn’t her father. That was a given. But they weren’t even close to being related. Thank God Lily had left behind Maggie’s toothbrush; the DNA results were swift and conclusive. Not that he ever doubted it. But whatever it took to convince Lily was the most important, because Lily was now the gatekeeper to Maggie.

In a way, he was glad for that. He was happy Maggie had a fierce sister fighting in her corner. Based on all that Dottie had told him, family was something sorely lacking in Dottie’s life. She herself had been abused, and she had nobody to take out her anger on but her own child. It was a blessing that Maggie had been taken away at a young age, and it had been awful, everything Dottie had done or allowed to be done to young Maggie. But he now was beginning to understand how these things happen. Abuse begets more abuse. 

His truck screeched to a halt in front of Lily’s house. He saw Maggie sitting on the front porch of the picturesque Victorian home in this quiet, leafy section of the city. He saw her stand up, but before he could get to her, Lily was on the porch, shuffling Maggie inside. Lily stood guard as Jack approached.

“Do you have it? Let me see it.”

He showed it to her. Lily eyed the document, probably checking for authenticity. She looked up at Jack and then back down at the paper. 

“OK, now what?” Lily said. 

“Now I get Maggie back.”

“Not that simple, buster. You have a lot of questions to answer. First of all, did you have a relationship with Dottie? Tell the truth.”

“No. I never met her. We were in the same class at Iowa State, but I barely spoke to her. We were in a study group together, a crazy coincidence that Chet used to help Dottie twist the truth to sully my name. And listen, I got the whole story. Easley and his attorney are behind the whole thing. I gotta tell Maggie, she’ll understand all of it.”

“Not so fast there, cowboy. I heard you’re in some legal hot water and I’m not crazy about my sister getting messed up with another bad egg. What’s up with all of that?”

“The guy who is out to buy my farm, he’s out to make me miserable. He provoked me to fight him and his lawyer. And now he’s pressing charges against me and suing me for personal injury and God knows what else. He’s trying to force me to sell.”

He continued to tell the whole story to Lily, gritting his teeth now and then because the only person who needed to hear all of this was Maggie. He mentally reminded himself that Lily had Maggie’s best interest at heart. But damn, woman.

“…So I made all that go away by agreeing to sell the farm to Chet. Her mother’s debt is paid, Chet wins both ways, big deal. I don’t even care about that. I want Maggie back, if she’ll still have me.”

The voice that came next was Maggie’s, and the sound of it was like a refreshing splash of water to a man lost in the desert. “Of course I will, you big dummy.”

Lily held out the document to Maggie as the screen door slammed shut. Maggie brushed past her. “I don’t need to see anything. I believe you.”

Jack grabbed her and kissed her, lifting her up in the air as he did so. 

“That’s my girl.”

“Shut up and kiss me again,” she said.

He did, and he never wanted to stop.

Lily mumbled something about making some phone calls and went back into the house.

“I put the farm up for sale. So Chet is probably going to buy it up. I’m so sorry, Maggie. This is not how I wanted things to start for us. My fists got me into some big trouble and I’m making you pay a heavy price to help me fix it.”

“I don’t care about any of that. Just maybe sell off the goats to some good homes. God knows what Chet will do with them.”

Jack laughed. “Yeah, I don’t wanna know. Hey, let’s go home. I need to get boning.”

“Hey, that’s my word for it.” Maggie kissed him on the neck and he responded by trailing his hands from her waist down to squeeze her ass. 

He breathed in the scent of her hair. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too. How about we get a motel room and go home in the morning? I want to take your pants off now.”

Jack actually considered it, but he really needed to get her home. He wanted to spend as much time with her on his land as was humanly possible before they had to move away. And he had a romantic night planned especially for Maggie, provided she agreed to come back home.

“That’s tempting, but…I really need to get back to milk the goats tonight. You know. Farm things.” He swallowed back his emotions as he waited for Maggie to gather her things. This woman had gotten him attached to the animals and now he was going to miss them something fierce. 

But that was life on the land. You say goodbye to things you raise by hand, whether it’s an animal or an ear of golden sweet corn, and then you start over. Sometimes that starting over takes unexpected twists and turns. Jack did not like twists and turns, though. All he knew anymore was Maggie. He loved her and he liked her. And he knew they could make it work, together.